For Hynes, D.A. Since 1990, Publicity and Rivals

Charles J. Hynes, 78, who is seeking his seventh term as Brooklyn district attorney, has used his longevity to his advantage, noting Brooklyn’s 80 percent decrease in crime since he took office.

Richard Perry / The New York Times

By JOSEPH BERGER

June 11, 2013

Charles J. Hynes has been Brooklyn’s district attorney longer than some of the law school students hoping to work for him have been alive.

But as he began campaigning for a seventh term, he seemed unusually vulnerable. A steady stream of negative publicity surrounding his office, including concerns about his political connections and revelations about a series of wrongful convictions that occurred under his watch, stirred speculation that this year would bring about one of the rarest New York City political spectacles: a district attorney voted out of office.

And yet Mr. Hynes has appeared increasingly confident on the campaign trail, racking up endorsements, trumpeting his accomplishments and offering well-honed rejoinders to the criticisms. And, at 78, he has used his longevity to his advantage, frequently noting Brooklyn’s 80 percent decrease in crime since he took office in 1990.

“We’re in a campaign so people can say all they want,” he said of his opponents recently. “But they’ve got to prove it.”

The two former prosecutors challenging him in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary — Kenneth P. Thompson, a former federal prosecutor, and Abe George, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan — have so far struggled to capitalize on his apparent vulnerabilities. Despite their success at fund-raising, they have struggled to build traction; some suggest that Mr. Thompson and Mr. George will divide the votes of those who have misgivings about Mr. Hynes, making it easier for him to win a primary that would all but guarantee him the post in heavily Democratic Brooklyn.

Still, both are repeatedly focusing on what they view as an Achilles’ heel — a series of wrongful convictions in cases where, critics say, prosecutors used drug-addled or unreliable witnesses to win convictions, sometimes going to extremes by threatening them or detaining them against their will. At least 50 homicide convictions involving the same detective are being reviewed by the district attorney’s office.

“How did that happen on his watch?” Mr. Thompson asked.

Criticism of Mr. Hynes has also focused on what critics have long argued is his willingness to use his office for political ends, rewarding supporters and punishing opponents. A well-known example, opponents say, was his policy of refusing to release the names of ultra-Orthodox Jewish defendants accused of sex crimes, which drew praise from some rabbis who have been among his most reliable supporters. The policy was sharply criticized by victims’ groups and sex-crime experts, who said it fostered a culture of secrecy that made it harder to curb abuse. At a raucous candidates’ forum on Monday night, Mr. George accused him of “protecting pedophiles.”

Mr. Hynes has his answers at the ready. Troubled witnesses go with the territory of prosecuting street crime, he suggested, and whenever a compromised witness is discovered, “my kids,” as he calls his staff members, work to exonerate those who were convicted. His office has denied threatening or detaining witnesses. The agreement with the Hasidim, he argued, prevented shunning of victims as informers in that close-knit community and should be evaluated in the context of his many successful prosecutions of sexual abuse cases.

Abe George, a candidate for Brooklyn district attorney, handed out leaflets at the Utica Avenue subway station in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on May 31.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

But both his rivals have found themselves on the defensive, both about qualifications and the efficiency of their campaigns.

Mr. Thompson, who is African-American, was the lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel housekeeper who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then managing director of the International Monetary Fund, of sexual assault. While Mr. Thompson ultimately won her a civil settlement, the criminal charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn were dropped because of questions about her credibility; prosecutors criticized Mr. Thompson’s handling of the case, also finding him too eager to put himself in the spotlight. Mr. Thompson was also the lawyer for two senior state senators, John L. Sampson and Pedro Espada Jr., in an investigation of efforts to operate a casino at Aqueduct racetrack. The two senators were later charged with corruption.

Mr. George, 34, the son of immigrants from India, is a political novice with no management experience. Though he has some high-profile contributors, he has a small paid staff and handles reporters’ calls himself, on his cellphone. He has portrayed his inexperience as a virtue.

“I’m the only real outsider in this race,” Mr. George said at the candidates’ forum. “If you want to stop political corruption, you have to look for a guy outside the machine.”

Mr. Hynes, a graduate of St. John’s University Law School, was a prosecutor in Brooklyn in the late 1960s and 1970s, holding top positions in the district attorney’s office he now runs. In 1975, Gov. Hugh L. Carey raised his profile by appointing him a special state prosecutor to investigate operators of shoddy, abusive nursing homes that were exploiting Medicaid. He was New York City’s fire commissioner from 1980 to 1982 and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo named him a special state prosecutor for the city’s criminal justice system in 1985.

In the latter role, he obtained convictions against three white men in the killing of a black teenager in Howard Beach, Queens. Among the highlights of his career as Brooklyn’s district attorney were the convictions of a former Brooklyn Democratic leader, Clarence Norman Jr., for extortion, and of two judges for taking bribes.

Mr. Hynes was faulted for his ties to Vito J. Lopez, a former Brooklyn Democratic leader; he turned the investigation of sexual harassment charges over to a special prosecutor. Mr. Hynes said he had recused himself because Mr. Lopez had been a steadfast ally. Mr. Lopez supported his re-election and gave his daughter a job in his office.

But Mr. Hynes is also running for re-election with the support of the borough’s powerful Democratic machine and its current leader, Frank R. Seddio, which could help him with turnout. Mr. Seddio, who resigned as a judge in Surrogate’s Court in Brooklyn amid an ethics inquiry into the tens of thousands of dollars he donated to Democratic leaders and organizations, sometimes introduces Mr. Hynes at events.

Even though he is white in a borough where blacks make up one-third of the population, he has emphasized endorsements from top African-American politicians — State Senator Eric L. Adams, City Councilwoman Letitia James, former Mayor David N. Dinkins and a former congressman, the Rev. Floyd H. Flake.

Ken Thompson, one of Mr. Hynes's challengers, at the Fort Greene Albany Neighborhood Senior Center on May 30.

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

“In a crowded field where he has the money, the troops, the endorsements, it’s going to be tough to beat him,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant who is not working for any of the candidates.

Mr. Hynes’s already significant profile has been raised by CBS, which recently started running a six-part television series about his office, “Brooklyn D.A.” It prompted a lawsuit by Mr. George — and criticism from some of the lawyers whose cases are featured — arguing that the show amounted to a long campaign commercial. At the same time, a lawyer suing on behalf of one of those whose convictions were overturned is trying to take a deposition from Mr. Hynes, potentially forcing him to directly answer persistent questions about the accusations of misconduct in the office in the middle of the campaign season.

Still, his opponents argue that Mr. Hynes’s grip on the office may not be safe. In 2005, when he had four opponents, Mr. Hynes took only 41 percent of the vote, just four percentage points more than his top challenger, Mr. Sampson.

Mr. George has been particularly biting in his assessment of Mr. Hynes. At the candidates’ forum he called one of Mr. Hynes’s statements “an outright lie” and he regularly accuses Mr. Hynes of using the powers of his office to attack political opponents.

Mr. George, who worked for eight years for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, has raised $200,000 for the race.

Mr. Thompson, 47, a father of two who lives in Clinton Hill, has raised $500,000, including checks from the comedian Chris Rock, and A. R. Bernard, the Brooklyn-based pastor of one of the nation’s largest churches. The other day, Mr. Thompson stopped in at a senior center in Crown Heights and shook hands with the 50 clients eating a lunch of pork chops, mashed potatoes and collard greens.

One of the diners, Consuelo Thompson, 82, said she was pleased that as a federal prosecutor he had made the opening statement in the civil rights case against the police officer who brutalized Abner Louima in 1997.

“He’s black and he’s trying to get justice for our black people,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hynes has a 24-year record of accomplishments he can draw from. He can also point to liberal policies, like his efforts to steer drug offenders into residential treatment programs and provide social services to carefully screened ex-convicts to reduce recidivism.

And Mr. Hynes insisted he planned to only add to that list.

“Age is a number,” he said, “and I’m in much better shape than I was in 1990 when I was 50 pounds overweight. I have more energy and drive, and I still have a lot to do.”